Harvesting Good Works

I was reading this morning from Romans 7 that says , “And now you are united with the one who was raised from the dead. As a result, we can produce a harvest of good deeds for God.”

I love that word “harvest.” I didn’t grow up on a farm or an orchard or anywhere I would use that word, so when I read it I get visions of these huge baskets of fruit and vegetables. Other words that come to mind are bountiful, plentiful, a lot:) Harvest…

Sometimes I wonder if good deeds are underrated in the Christian community. We make it clear that people can’t get to heaven by what they do and so, as a result, we underplay good works. But as one reads the new testament you can’t escape the fact that faith and works are hard to separate.

My wife Suzanne recently had a very cool encounter that falls into the category of a good deed. A woman approached Suzanne and asked her about the church we go to as she was interested in attending because of some hard times she has gone through and because she wanted her daughter to be exposed to her faith. Suzanne listened and encouraged her to attend our Saturday service. That’s it. That’s all Suzanne did. She listened and encouraged. But as Suzanne was recounting the story to me I wondered, “am I approachable?” Good deeds often start with approachability.

In my relationships outside the church I need to be intentional about strengthening them to the point where they would come to me if they needed guidance or spiritual advice or if they were going through a hard time. I want my life to be a harvest of a good deeds for God. And as Jesus told us we can’t make anything grow only God can, but we can till the soil, water the plants, give needed nutrients into the ground…if we do this with people we may very well see the opportunities to harvest good deeds increase.